Tips and Tricks on: How to defeat Kanrethad

As of 7/14/2014, my Warlock received the Green Fire after roughly fifty attempts and twelve hours of non-stop work, between looking up fights, attempts, repairs, etc. at a 488 Item level. I will be explaining to you, the reader, on how to defeat Kanrethad as a Destruction Warlock.Please note: although this guide was written in Mists of Pandaria, it is still valid for Warlords of Draenor.

Introduction

This fight is HARD, I cannot express that enough, not to mention, in my opinion this fight makes a lot of other Blizzard encounters look like a joke, however, you need to be a master of Kanrethad's mechanics while being able to adapt to the encounter at moments notice. I will tell all warlocks from time and time again, this fight is NOT a gear-based fight, it is a mechanics and skill check. Don't believe me? All of these "tips and tricks" are meant to help guide you, the Warlock, in the right direction of defeating Kanrethad. I cannot write a solid How-To-Kill Guide completely because the timing of Kanrethad's mechanics are not consistent with two encounters.

My Talents and Glyphs Explained

The point of my talent choice is to equalize survivability and mobility while being able to do damage, Soul Leech is chosen due to a small shield that can make or break you in this fight, considering you will be receiving a lot of overall damage, and Mortal Coil to instantly heal you for fifteen percent of your maximum health if you are in a tight situation. Sacrificial Pact is my personal choice for this fight, some may prefer Dark Bargain, however, you want to take as little damage as possible, and while Dark Bargain will absorb all incoming damage, half of it will be dealt to you as a damage-over-time (DoT), which could be enough to kill you. Unbound Will is chosen due to the fact it removes ALL magical effects, making it the most viable choice for this encounter, as you are dealing with several DoTs on you at once. The choice of Grimoire of Sacrifice is to allow you a small health generation and increased damage to Kanrethad (considering you are going to be enslaving the Pit Lord, there are no other viable options), as for Kil'jaeden's Cunning you want to be able to be somewhat mobile throughout the encounter so you are not wasting time moving out of Rain of Fire or the Backfire. As for Glyphs - the glyph of Havoc is relatively optional however highly recommended due to the increased damage spread it provides with Chaos Bolt (when dealing with the Fel Hunters), if you are geared enough, it is not at all necessary - however, the lower item level you are, the more 'required' this glyph becomes. Glyph of Ember Tap and Glyph of Siphon Life are required for survivability on this encounter. Glyph of Enslave Demon is also highly recommended to re-enslave your Pit Lord faster.

The Strategy

Before the fight even begins, this is what your positioning should generally look like. More importantly, make sure you are completely buffed and if you have pots, use them. As soon as you begin to summon Kanrethad, make sure your Impis alive for the beginning of the encounter. You will begin the fight by first using a Rain of Fire at Kanrethad's feet, using Curse of the Elements, and going into a standard DPS Rotation. As Kanrethad begins summoning his Pit Lord, be prepared to Fear him instead of Enslaving him, the idea of this is to give you an extra twenty seconds or so of free damage, around the time the Fear ends on the Pit Lord, you will now sacrifice your Imp and use your Enslave Demon macro. Interrupt Kanrethad's first Curse of Ultimate Doom with your Pit Lord's charge, and deal with his abilities as explained above. As the Imp Phase begins, you will want to position yourself in such a way that you are stacking on your Pit Lord's tail, assuming he's facing behind Kanrethad, if he is not, then kite the imps to where your Pit Lord can Charge and Fel Flame Breath use his Cleave to help deal area-of-effect damage to bring them down in conjunction with your Rain of Fire, be sure to utilize your Fire and Brimstone and Immolate to maximize DPS and survivability. When the Fel Hunter phase begins, use your macro to move your Pit Lord to LoS the Fel Hunters. The Fel Hunters WILL NOT devour Pit Lord's enslavement if the Fel Hunter is not facing the Pit Lord, keep the Fel Hunters facing away from your Pit Lord and DPS them down, while using Havoc on one of the Fel Hunters, and using your Chaos Bolt on the other two, as for the Doom Lord phase, when he begins summoning the first Doom Lord take this time to re-enslave your Pit Lord to refresh the duration of your Enslave Demon and keep one of the Doom Lords banished. Kanrethad will only summon two waves of Fel Hunters and two Doom Lords total, after that you will be dealing with imps for the rest of the encounter.

Words of advice: Do NOT get greedy or excited, stay calm and relaxed, practice makes perfect, and if you are getting too fed up with failed attempts take a break.

If you find you're taking too long to kill Kanrethad, try bringing along a Purification Potion! :D -Marierierieee

List of Guide Updates

Update: (8/11/14) - Polished the current content and expanded on missing (or lacking) contents.Update: (9/14/14) - Corrected a few errors with the strategy.Update: (10/11/14) - Informational Update: No significant changes were made from the new expansion pack to this particular boss fight, making the guide viable even up throughout Warlords of Draenor (assuming the fight does not change in terms of mechanics).Update: (12/4/14) - Added a note at the top of the page.

Comentado por SteiniDJ

I did run into slight issues with your charge macro, however. The "/targetlasttarget" ending usually set my Pit Lord as my target, delaying my chaos bolt for a few fractions of a second. Nothing major at all, just wondering if it's necessary.

Comentado por Mognus

If you find yourself unable to do it even after reading this guide just wait and get geared. On my 558 ilvl lock you can kill him before he even spawns the 1st set of felhunters. Have patience and dont worry you will get that green fire you so desperattly want. :)

Comentado por Chloebell1711

Thank you so much! I need to get the Green Fire on my main before WoD cause its been in my questlog forever XD Logged on just to rate and comment on this :D Thank you again, Im gonna go try to get the Green Fire now!

Comentado por d3nalii

Thank you SO much for this really helpful guide! I had been trying this off and on since the quest first came out, but couldn't do it. Finally got it done yesterday with a combo of this guide and shtookeyGAMES' 5.4 Revised youtube walkthrough. Thanks again!

Comentado por KiritaWindwalker

Note: Gear will help, but STILL HARD! I pulled 200k dps and was able to push him fast enough to avoid a second layer of fel hunters... I Agree with the positioning except positions!

My changes: Put gate in middle to fel hunter spot. Close enough to circle. I would let one full rain of fire go off and use brimstone to 2-3 shot hunters. Outside of that I stayed in middle keeping in front of the pit lord for the dispel! Just kinda stand on edge of the fires to keep it as compact as ya can!

These changes worked great for me.

Also, from start till actually enslaving pit lord (after fear) Burst. Drop ALL your CDs! Once the fight really starts you'll have to focus on other stuff so you cant afford to watch CDs.

BIG TIP NOT INCLUDED IN GUIDE: Macro Fel Breath!

/cast incinerate/cast fel breath

Seriously, this will be a HUGE help for dps, time, and strain! One less button to push! :)

I hope my experience will help you!

Good luck! :D

PS

This fight will make you die. Expect to die once or twice, seriously. Don't try to do it when you only have a hour to spare! Do it when your calm and take breaks after every death (This gives your CDs time to reset if needed and lets you stretch to calm your nerves!).

Comentado por nerflocked

Why doesn't anyone pop a doomguard or infernal? If wont mess with your enslave, and especially the AoE from the infernal is great (on imps).

Also, you can cast a charge on the felhunters to stun them, so they take 100% addition damage.

Comentado por Xemit100

quick question, are we still able to finish the quest in Warlords?

Comentado por designadrug

How do you LOS the Chaos Bolt? It's just coming around the corner into the alcove and insta-popping me for a million damage.

Comentado por JoeAlder

Thanks to your guide, my 522 lock (no gems, no enchants, a 476 PvP trinket, never knew how to use this toon) is about to get the green fire! After only about 6 attempts I got him down to 30%! I didn't pay enough attention to the debuffs, and ended with an imp stunning me every time I tried to cast a Chaos bolt, and an Agony ticking for a lot of damage. It's just a matter of reflexes and memory (by that time, the second Doomlord was out, so there were only imp waves left).

Here are my two cents: you can prolong the fight A LOT. Combining Soulstones and potions, you can keep yourself "alive" more than enough to kill Kanrethad.- Start with Soulstone, try not to die.- When the curse is about to expire, use your potion to remove the debuff.- He reapplies the curse, but fear not! Should it expire and kill you, you still have the soulstone (you shouldn't even need it, but anyway).- After ressing, your BL debuff (use drums at the beginning) and potion CD are free! Drums again, and a DPS pot (or keep it if you need to dispel the curse yet again).- With good timing, your Soulstone CD should be ready again.- Theoretically, you could keep on like this as long as your Pit Lord is alive, but I don't thik anyone needs to do all this. This is just to clarify that you have all the time you need to kill Kanrethad, so don't rush.- Remember that, every time you die, your Sacrifice buff goes away, so you should revive, fear the Pit Lord, LoS everyone and quickly summon/sacrifice your imp.

Comentado por Momembi98

I owe this guide my green fire! 5 stars! Although I found it easier to Soulshatter the Doom Lords so that they attack my Pit Lord because I found that if I forgot to banish them again I wiped and having the 2 Doom Lords banished was too much maintenance.

Comentado por Huludicidal

I have a question about this encounter.

I recently boosted a warlock to 90 and have been attempting this fight (nearly 20 attempts so far). I've got the mechanics mostly down (I still make a mistake here and there), and gotten the boss as low as 38% hp on a few occasions. What usually ends up killing me on attempts when I make no mistakes is the Curse of Doom he applies with the 7 minute timer.

I've seen a lot of funky things happen in this encounter. A lot of guides say to interrupt the first CoD cast using the Pit Lord's charge. Well, I've done that, and sometimes he just immediately starts casting it again. Other times, he waits a minute or two to cast it, and on a few occasions, he casts it twice to make the debuff 14 minutes long instead of 7 minutes long.

My lock is in a mix of Timeless Isle gear and the boost gear, so I do not have the DPS to beat the fight in 7 minutes. What I do not understand is the mechanics behind the boss casting CoD immediately after I interrupt him, and him casting it twice to double the debuff timer.

And to answer the question you will most certainly ask, yes. I've soul stoned myself to rez updon dying from CoD. However, I've found that every time I soul stone rez, my enslave on the Pit Lord expires and I get ruined trying to re-enslave him with 1 or 2 doom lords also whacking me. (The banish on the 2nd doom lord also expired at the same time).

I'm curious if I am just having bad luck, if I am messing up by not re-applying enslave demon/banish often enough, if I am supposed to let myself die from the CoD to rez with a soul stone to continue fighting, or if there is a way to trigger two casts of CoD for a 14 minute debuff timer.

Any insight here would be super helpful.

Thank you!

Comentado por Shamelion

Woohoo! Just got my green fire! Thanks for the guide! My only tip is for the felhunters: move pitlord away, RoF the gate, when 1st comes out, Banish it! 2nd gets hit by havock, 3rd gets a facefull of shadow bolt. After the 2 are dead, you can cast banish again to un-banish, and kill 3rd one. Woked great for me. Good luck!

Comentado por JaceDraccus

I just got green fire, and I have to say this guide was a huge help! Best strategy I could find.

Thank you!

Comentado por TdarKoNe

Excellent guide, I gave it 5/5 stars! I was able to complete this on both horde and alliance with the help of this guide. It still took me quite a few attempts to get the strategy down, so don't get discouraged! I followed every aspect, used the macros, and made sure I had a flask and food buff as well. Both Warlocks were around 520 ilvl and were able to take him down before the second felhunter phase.

Comentado por username874

I just got my green fire today. This guide was a huge help.

I used a boosed warlock that has an ilvl of 509, with enough hit gems/enchants to get close to the 15% needed, and only having a flask buff. I had also used Soul Link for the extra 20% health boost.

For the Fel Hunters I tired to make sure I had 2 or 3 embers to burst them all down quickly, then:Moved the Pit Lord away, RoF the portal, Havoc the first Fel Hunter, Conflag>Chaos Bolt>Shadow Burn the second (killing both first and second Fel Hunters), then Conflag>Chaos Bolt>Shadow Burn the third to dead.

For the Doom Lord phase, I only had to let my Pit Lord attack the Doom Lord long enough to get agro and then set the Pit Lord back to attacking Kanrethad and just ignored the Doom Lord for the rest of the encounter.

Other than that take breaks between deaths and try to figure exactly why you died what what you should have done instead then try again.

Comentado por Canfoot

If I was to give some advice it would be to look at many different guides and try to combo them, for example during the imp phase I stood behind the PL and laid down a min. of 2 RoF. In addition, when the boss was at 3% health I died with no Soulstone but I didn't release I used the PL to take him down.

Anyway my two-cents and good luck!

Comentado por Dawnrider

The placement for the Pit Lord during felhunter phase is bs. No matter where I put him he is always de-enslaved when the third Felhunter comes out and im killed. And gear does matter here. If you cant burn those felhunters down with 1 or 2 attacks its game over. Wasted my gold buying this tome for nothing.

Comentado por Hyrita

Managed to ding 90 AND get this done all in one day thanks to this guide! All the while yelling, "Mom, I did it!" Thanks for the information :D

Comentado por Nistrus

Words of advice: Do NOT get greedy or excited, stay calm and relaxed, practice makes perfect, and if you are getting too fed up with failed attempts take a break.

This is easily the most important thing to remember while attempting this. Got my green fire as of an hour ago as a 530 destro lock with this guide.

Hardest part for me was the 2nd pack of felhunters, but I solved that by moving my pit lord into my chaos bolt hiding place right after the cataclysm following the 2nd pack of imps so he had plenty of time to get out of line of sight.

Good luck to all those other locks still trying to get their green fire before the 6.0.2 patch drops :D

Comentado por Celiina

So I have been hearing they are removing this come release of Warlords, but based on reading the guide you expect it to be kept in. I assume it was just empty rumors I was hearing? Thanks again for the guide. Take care

Comentado por menace97

This is apparently still available to complete in which to get the "of the Black Harvest" title. I only found about about this today, but like many locks, was certain that this was absolutely going away when patch 6.0.2 dropped. I'm disappointed I only found out about this now, but excited that there may be a chance to actually still get this before WoD!

If anyone can confirm that would be great. Thank you. Good luck with getting the title still.

Comentado por menace97

I wouldn't have believed it, well unless I tried it right now. I just had to. Reading some of these comments, I thought "there is no way Blizzard would say it was going away when it was reported before 6.0 if i remember correctly, and let it still be attainable for weeks? That would be cruel."

I honestly stopped trying the very night before the major patch dropped. I remember the night well, since there was a huge warlock convention going on outside of the Black Temple! Everyone there thought the same thing obviously. If I hadn't come here and read some of these comments, I wouldn't have bothered with it until much later on, since there was no rush...

I can confirm, fellow warlocks, as of November 10, 2014 (Patch 6.0.3) the title is absolutely still attainable. As soon as you leave the scenario, you will be rewarded with this fantastic title! So please try to do this before WoD officially drops on Thursday - tell all your warlock friends.

Thank you to everyone who posted tips, tutorials, macros, videos, etc. I am very grateful for all of your help. *salutes*

On a final note, although I am ecstatic and shouldn't have anything to complain about - I do. With this particular element of the game being removed later than was reported, I am sure there are many warlocks out there that will not have gotten the title due to misinformation from Blizzard. I would be furious if I was reading this months down the road, and had given up trying. C'mon... not cool Blizz!

Comentado por Nehel

If you will die AND you are controlling pit lord AND YOU KILLED FELHUNTERS, you can still kill the boss. I had like 20%~ left to kill him, tho i've controlled pit lord and killed felhunters and i was able to kill the boss with pit lord spells. After doomlords he starts to rotate his abilities, summoning wild imps etc etc so you have plenty of time.